We strive to be good stewards of the land by maintaining and enhancing soil, water and air quality through sustainable farming practices. We encourage and support a small farm ecosystem of diverse plants, animals, birds and pollinators.  We believe a healthy body is inseparable from a healthy soil. In order to be a healthy and economically viable farm, it is important to have both a diversity of crops and a diversity of markets. Our goal is to always provide the highest quality product to all our customers. Through the CSA experience we hope to encourage a sense of place by reconnecting people with the land that sustains them.

Are we organic?  No, we are not certified organic.  Our vegetable and herb crops are produced following certified organic requirements.  However, we find that the record-keeping and yearly fees required for organic certification are not worth the time, effort, and expense.  We'd rather spend our time and money growing good food. We use crop rotation, compost, floating row covers, hand weeding, and more traditional organic methods to grow our veggies.

Our fruit is grown using a combination of Integrated Pest Management and organic methods.  In our climate on the East Coast, we have growing conditions (in particular, high humidity and wet weather) that make it impossible to grow truly high quality fruit consistently using only organic methods.

We like to call what we are doing to protect our fruit crops "Certified Sensible". We select what we consider to be the most sensible approach to crop protection to protect ourselves, our customers, and the environment.  In some cases that means using approaches that are traditionally considered organic methods (trapping insects, planting disease-resistant varieties, encouraging insect-eating birds, and using organically-approved spray products), and sometimes that means using Integrated Pest Management methods (monitoring pest populations and using synthetic chemicals if needed).

Most organic fruit you find in stores is either of inferior quality, is shipped in from other countries which have different (or no) organic standards, or is shipped in from the West Coast of the US.  Growers there do not have the same types of problems or growing conditions as we do here.  However, many fruit and vegetable crops from the West are grown in fragile desert environments and usually require huge quantities of irrigation water be shipped in, diverting it from other areas.  Addition-ally, the use of fossil fuels to then ship such produce to the East is extensive.   We do not consider those practices very sustainable or kind to the environment.

In making our decisions in fruit crop protection methods, we take into consideration both environmental and safety concerns. Every year there are new, and better products that can be used (both organically approved and conventional), and we constantly re-evaluate and update our methods.

Due to these decisions, and our concern about safety and the environment, we have an orchard that produces relatively undamaged fruit. Plus, the farm is abundant with insect, mammalian and avian life…all of which we like to see (and we've got plenty of naturally-occurring grass and weeds, too)!